1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an automatic guided system, and more particularly to an automatic guided system for transferring scrap glass, and the automatic guided system is capable of decreasing the wasted space of the first fabrication area (FAB) in a clean room and reducing the manpower cost.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, it depicts the arrangement of each level of a clean room. The clean room 10 includes a second fabrication area (SUB-FAB) 22 located on the first level 12, a first fabrication area (FAB) 24 located on the second level 14, and an air chamber 26 located on the third level 16. The second fabrication area 22 is an air return area or an area for accommodating pipes and auxiliary manufacturing apparatuses. The first fabrication area 24 is located above the second fabrication area 22 for accommodating primary manufacturing apparatuses. The air chamber 26 is located above the first fabrication area 24 for sucking flesh air from the outside of the clean room. An air circulating system 28 is installed on the first level 12 or the third level 16 for regulating the temperature and humidity and generating airflow, shown as the arrow in FIG. 1.
Recently, according to a clean room for manufacturing a liquid crystal display, human workers collect scrap glass, such as an entire scrap glass substrate or the scrap edge of a glass substrate. For example, according to a method for collecting the edge scrap of a glass substrate, a glass cutting apparatus for cutting a glass substrate is generally provided with a scrap box located thereunder. After the scrap box is full of the scrap glass, the scrap box will be pushed and moved to a warehouse by human worker.
However, according to the above-mentioned method for collecting the scrap glass, the scrap box can occupy the space of the first fabrication area. Also, it is not easy to control when the scrap box is full of the scrap glass, and therefore the human work need to patrol, inspect and transfer the scrap box regularly, such that the manpower cost is increased. Furthermore, when the scrap glass is collected into the scrap box, it possibly pollutes the clean room. In addition, the scrap box full of the scrap glass is too heavy to be easily transferred and will easily harm the human worker. If the production quantity of the liquid crystal display is increased, the number of the glass cutting apparatus and the scrap box are increased and the area of the clean room is enlarged, thereby further increasing the manpower cost.
Recently, an automatic guided system is widely applied to the manufacturing industry. For example, an automatic guided vehicle or a rail-guided vehicle is usually utilized in the clean room for transferring work for manufacturing a semiconductor device or a flat panel display (FPD), such as a liquid crystal display. U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,563, entitled “Automatic Guided Vehicle” issued to Murata et al. on Feb. 1, 2000, discloses an automatic guided vehicle or a rail guided vehicle including light sensors can safely, certainly and rapidly finish the transferring work.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an automatic guided system for transferring scrap glass for solving the above-mentioned problem of the transferring work of the human worker.